Shawn Monaghan and Ben Margolin ’17, the general manager of Sodexo at Brandeis and the chair of the Senate dining committee respectively, have both stepped down from their positions. Steven Canario, the former general manager of Sodexo at Emerson College, has replaced Monaghan. Margolin is expected to be replaced by Skye Golann ’18, a Class of 2018 senator.

In an interview with the Justice, Margolin said that he is stepping down from his position because he is studying abroad next semester and cannot hold a senate seat or chair a committee from abroad. Monaghan could not be reached for comment. Canario told the Justice in a telephone interview that he found out he would become general manager at Brandeis in late August and that Monaghan has accepted a different position within the Sodexo network.

Canario said that he has not yet encountered any major difficulties as general manager and that he hopes students see him as accessible. He added that he highly values student input on managing dining services.

“The best part of my job is getting to work with students, getting to know the community,” Monaghan said.

“Each institution has different needs, and you know, at the end of the day, from the two or three weeks I’ve been on campus I’m very pleased with my team and how committed they are to providing great service to the community.”

Margolin announced his resignation on Sunday via the Brandeis University Senate Dining Committee Facebook page. Margolin wrote that “many of the former committee members will remain involved with dining things at first to help ease the transition, but you should all know that if you have any issues with dining, there will be a new committee in charge of things.”

Though Margolin indicated in the Facebook post that Golann would be replacing him as chair, it will be several weeks before the next chair is formally announced.

Both the Senate and Vice President Dennis Hermida-Gonzales ’16 must confirm the nominees for committee chair positions. Golann was a member of the committee last year and is currently completing an initiative with Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan to increase BranVan service around Waltham.

Regarding his involvement this year, Margolin told the Justice in an interview, “It’s likely at the beginning that I’ll go and I’ll sit in on those [early] meetings [of the dining committee] and I’ll help facilitate.”

“Moreover,” he said, “Once every two weeks the heads of the committee will meet with Sodexo, so it’s definitely possible I’ll sit in on those meetings.”

Margolin told the Justice that he feels the current relationship between Sodexo and the student body is “what I wanted, in a lot of respects. And I want it to grow, and I want all the first-years to be added to the [committee’s Facebook] group, things like that, because it centralizes everything.”

“If you’re upset about something and you complain to your friends in your dorm room, that doesn’t bring change. However, if you post in the Facebook group and then it becomes public, the people in the senate know about it, [and] the Sodexo administrators check the Facebook page so they can do something about it,” he added.

Margolin also said that he was not worried about possible pushback from students displeased with the recent renovations to Sherman dining hall.

“A lot of students say, ‘Why did the University spend 7 million of my dollars to renovate Sherman?’ There’s a few things to keep in mind: we didn’t pay for it, Sodexo paid for it. It was in the contract that they would hash out the money for [Sherman].”

Margolin also noted that “there are certain structural things … that were seriously wrong and needed to be changed."

“I think once the new committee gets that out to the students, they’ll [understand],” he added.

Both Monaghan and Margolin were a part of a Nov. 12, 2014 panel in which students addressed concerns with Sodexo and dining services.

Margolin moderated the panel while Monaghan spoke on behalf of Sodexo, along with Rabbi Chayim Zirkind and Senior Director of Operations Randi Kates-Peirce.

Students discussed contention with the 2014 meal plans and food waste, among other topics, according to a Nov. 18 Justice article.

—Avi Gold contributed reporting.